This invention relates to launcher missile systems and, more particularly, to launcher tubes having means for reducing, or changing, the direction of the tip-off rates of a launcher missile system.
It is well known that one of the contributing causes of dispersion of a missile is the deflection imparted to the missile during emergence from the launcher tube. This deflection is called "tip-off" and has been considered in the prior art to be primarily a function of the gravitational forces acting on the missile at a time when the missile center of gravity has passed the forward end of the launcher tube causing the missile to nose down and, the magnitude of the tip-off was expressed, and still is, in degrees per second as the "tip-off rate".
It has now been found that tip-off is more than a function of gravity acting on a partially emerged missile but is a function of the missile, the launcher tube, and the launcher tube/missile supporting mechanism (whether a person or a mechanical device); all acting together as a system. Tip-off is inherent in the system and it has also been discovered that tip-off does not always occur in a downward direction but can be any direction and at different rates depending on the type of system.
With the tip-off thus being in any direction and at different rates, it can be seen that is is desirable to reduce the tip-off rate in whatever direction it occurs in the launcher-missile system.
This invention provides a means for reducing the tip-off rate in a launcher-missile system and this is, therefore, one object to this invention.
It also might be desirable, in certain instances, to overcompensate tip-off rate to produce a tip-off rate in the opposite direction, as for example, if the tip-off rate were downward, to provide a tip-off rate upwardly, and thus accurately align the missile on its intended course.
This invention also teaches how to not only reduce the tip-off rate of a launcher missile system but how to provide a tip-off which is opposite to that occurring in the system, and this, therefore, is still another object of this invention.